Privacy Policy

LockedWeb ("LockedWeb," "we," "us") provides a content-filtering service that blocks pornography and other categories of content you choose on devices you set up. This policy describes how we handle personal information across our website (lockedweb.com), our apps and configuration profiles, our filtering (DNS) service, and our communications with you (together, the "Service").

Your use of the Service is also governed by our Terms of Service. If you do not agree with this policy, please do not use the Service.

01Information we collect

1.1 Information you provide

• Account information. Your email address and an optional display name. Sign-in is by a link we email you, or by Google or Apple sign-in — LockedWeb does not store account passwords.
• Phone number. Our checkout collects your phone number when you subscribe. We use it to reach you about your account and protected devices and — only if you agree — for marketing texts (Section 4).
• Payment information. Payments are processed by Stripe. Your card number is entered on Stripe's systems and never touches our servers; we store only an opaque subscription reference and billing status.
• Your protection choices. The filtering categories you enable, your settings, and any custom websites you choose to block or allow.
• Removal and unblock requests. When you ask to remove LockedWeb, loosen protection, or unblock a specific website, we record the request, the website concerned (if any), and any reason you type in.
• Accountability partner details. If you choose to add an accountability partner, you provide their name and email address (see Section 7 — please only add someone who has agreed to it).
• Communications. Messages you send to our support, sales, or privacy addresses.

1.2 Information collected automatically from your devices

• Device information. Platform and OS version, a device label, protection status (for example, whether protection is active or a removal request is pending), and a periodic "last seen" heartbeat.
• Pseudonymous identifiers. Each account and device is identified internally by random or derived identifiers (not your name). A short opaque client ID connects your devices to your protection rules on our resolver.
• DNS filtering data. When a protected device looks up a website, the DNS query (the domain name only — DNS does not include full web addresses or page content) is sent to our resolver, which checks it against your protection rules in real time and either answers or blocks it. See Section 2 for exactly what is and is not retained.
• Activity counts and integrity events. Daily, per-category counts of blocked lookups, and events indicating tampering attempts, instability, or crashes on a protected device.

1.3 Website visits and cookies

When you visit lockedweb.com we collect standard web data: IP address (from which an approximate location can be inferred), browser and device type, the pages you view, and data from cookies and similar technologies, including analytics and advertising measurement described in Section 5. Our emails also include standard open- and click-tracking — a small tracking image and wrapped links — which tells us whether an email was opened and whether a link in it was followed.

1.4 Information from other sources

We receive subscription and payment status from Stripe, sign-in identity from Google or Apple if you use those options to sign in, and campaign interaction data (for example, that a visit came from an ad) from the advertising platforms described in Section 5.

02How our filtering handles your browsing — please read this section

Using a service like LockedWeb can itself say something sensitive about you. We designed the Service to know as little as possible:

• We filter; we do not monitor. The Service does not collect browsing history, screenshots, keystrokes, messages, or location.
• Queries are processed, not retained. Your device's DNS queries necessarily reach our resolver so it can filter them (on iOS, Apple's own installation screen tells you a DNS profile can see the sites the device looks up). Our resolver runs with per-query logging off: we do not keep a per-user record of the domains your device looks up. Limited short-lived operational logs (such as connection and error logs, which can include device IP addresses) exist for security and troubleshooting and are not a per-user record of the domains you visit.
• Categories, not URLs. The activity data we retain is daily block counts per category — numbers, not addresses.
• The only specific websites we store are ones you give us. Your own custom block/allow rules and the specific sites named in your unblock or removal requests are stored with your account so we can act on them and keep an accurate record of protection changes.
• Upstream resolution. To answer queries that are not blocked, our resolver passes the lookup to upstream DNS providers (Quad9 and Cloudflare); if our resolver is temporarily unreachable, devices fail over to a family-safe public DNS service (currently Cloudflare's) so protection continues. Your account identity is not forwarded with those lookups.
• We do not use any of this data for advertising, and we do not sell it. Filtering data is never shared with advertising or analytics platforms.

03How we use information

We use the information described above to:

• Provide the Service — apply your protection rules on our resolver, keep devices paired and protected, and operate the standard removal process (a 72-hour wait plus a one-time unlock code) and other protection-change requests.
• Run your account and subscription — sign-in, billing through Stripe, renewal reminders, and required subscription notices.
• Send service communications (Section 4).
• Provide support and improve the product. When you contact us, or when you submit a removal request with a reason, that information (including your account email and device details) is sent to and reviewed by LockedWeb staff so we can respond and fix problems. Access to systems containing user data is restricted to authorized staff and access to support consoles is logged.
• Send marketing you have agreed to receive (Section 4).
• Measure our website and advertising (Section 5) — website data only.
• Protect the Service and its users — detect tampering, abuse, and fraud, and maintain an append-only administrative audit log of support actions.
• Comply with law and enforce our terms.
• Analyze in aggregate. We may create aggregated or de-identified data (such as overall block statistics) that no longer identifies anyone; we maintain such data in de-identified form and do not attempt to re-identify it.

04Email and text messages

Service messages. We send messages needed to run the Service: setup and pairing steps, receipts and renewal reminders, confirmations and status of removal/unblock requests, security and tamper alerts, and notices about your account or this policy. You cannot opt out of essential service messages while you have an account.

Marketing — only with your agreement. If you provide your email address or phone number and agree to receive marketing from us, we may send you promotional emails and/or text messages about LockedWeb. Agreeing to marketing is never a condition of purchasing or using the Service, and you can withdraw your agreement at any time:

• Email: use the unsubscribe link in any marketing email, or contact privacy@lockedweb.com.
• Text messages: reply STOP to cancel at any time, or HELP for help. Message frequency varies, and message and data rates may apply.

Opting out of marketing does not affect essential service messages. We keep a record of opt-outs (a suppression list) so we can honor them.

Your mobile number stays with us. We do not share your SMS consent with third parties or affiliates for their marketing purposes, and no mobile information will be sold or shared with third parties for promotional or marketing purposes.

05Cookies, analytics, and advertising on our website

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies. In addition to cookies necessary for the site to work, we use, or may use, third-party analytics and advertising services — such as Google Analytics, Google Ads, and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) advertising tools — to understand how the site is used, measure whether our advertising works, and show ads for LockedWeb (including to people who have visited our site).

Two important limits:

• These technologies operate on our marketing website. We do not install advertising or third-party analytics trackers inside the filtering service, we do not send your filtering data, DNS activity, block history, or protection settings to advertising platforms, and we do not combine website analytics or advertising data with your account's filtering data.
• The data involved is standard web data: online identifiers (cookie IDs, IP, device data) and site interactions (pages viewed, sign-up or purchase events).

Your choices. You can control cookies in your browser settings. To opt out of personalized advertising: Google Ads Settings (adssettings.google.com) and the Google Analytics opt-out add-on (tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout); Meta's ad preferences (facebook.com/adpreferences); and the industry opt-out pages at aboutads.info/choices and optout.networkadvertising.org. For how Google uses data from sites that use its services, see policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Under some US state laws, allowing advertising cookies can count as "sharing" or a "sale" of personal information. Section 11 explains your right to opt out, including via the Global Privacy Control browser signal, which we honor where required by law.

We do not respond to legacy "Do Not Track" browser signals, for which no standard was ever adopted; we treat the Global Privacy Control as described above.

06When we share information

We share personal information only as described here. We do not sell personal information for money, and we do not provide your personal information to data brokers. We do not sell or share your filtering data, DNS activity, or protection settings for advertising under any definition.

• Service providers (processors). Companies that process data on our instructions to run the Service: payment processing (Stripe), transactional email delivery (Resend), application and database hosting (Vercel; Neon/Postgres), resolver infrastructure (DigitalOcean), blocklist storage (Cloudflare), and upstream DNS resolution for non-blocked queries (Quad9, Cloudflare — these receive the domain being looked up, without your account identity). A current subprocessor list is available on request at privacy@lockedweb.com.
• Accountability partners you designate (Section 7).
• Advertising and analytics partners — website data only, as described in Section 5.
• Legal and safety. If required by law, subpoena, or legal process, or where necessary to protect the rights, safety, or property of LockedWeb, our users, or others, or to detect and prevent fraud or abuse.
• Business transfers. If LockedWeb is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to this policy's commitments.
• With your direction or consent, for anything not covered above.

07Accountability partners

LockedWeb lets you invite an accountability partner — someone you choose who supports your goals. This feature is entirely optional and consent-based on both sides:

• Double opt-in. The person you nominate receives a single invitation naming you. They receive nothing else unless they accept. If they decline, or later unsubscribe, they get no further messages, and an address that has opted out cannot be re-invited.
• What an active partner receives. Alerts when you request removal of LockedWeb or ask to loosen protection — including the specific website you asked to unblock, where the request names one — plus tamper alerts, cancellation of those requests, and your per-category block counts. Partners do not receive browsing history, because we do not have it.
• Nothing is silent. If you remove a partner, the removal takes effect immediately and the partner is notified that alerts have ended.
• Partners have rights too. Every partner email includes a working stop link that requires no account. A partner can also contact privacy@lockedweb.com to have their address suppressed.

If you add a partner, you are sharing the information above with that person — choose someone you trust, and only someone who has agreed to the role.

08How long we keep information, and what deletion does

• Account data (profile, devices, settings, custom rules, requests, activity counts) is kept for as long as your account exists.
• Billing records are kept as required for tax, accounting, and dispute purposes.
• DNS queries are processed in real time and are not retained per-user (Section 2). Short-lived operational logs on our infrastructure age out on a rolling basis.
• Marketing preferences and opt-outs are kept as long as needed to honor them.
• Support correspondence is kept as long as needed to handle the matter and improve the Service.

Deleting your account. You can delete your account at any time from within the Service or by emailing privacy@lockedweb.com. Deletion permanently removes your profile, devices, settings, activity counts, and requests from our live systems. We want you to know up front about three things that survive deletion:

1. A non-identifying device identifier is retained so that a device with LockedWeb still installed stays protected. Deleting your account is not a way to switch the filter off — to remove LockedWeb from a device, complete the standard removal process (a 72-hour wait plus a one-time unlock code).
2. Contact details associated with that identifier (used so we can reach you about a device that is still protected) are automatically erased after approximately 90 days of device inactivity.
3. Our administrative audit log — an append-only record of support and administrative actions (which can include a website you asked us to unblock) — is retained for the security and integrity of the protection system.

Copies of data in our database provider's encrypted backups expire on that provider's schedule of up to 30 days. Our service providers (such as Stripe and our email provider) retain records they processed on their own legally required schedules.

09Security

We use commercially reasonable technical and organizational safeguards: encryption in transit, encryption at rest by our hosting providers, hashed device credentials, least-privilege access controls for staff, and an append-only audit log of administrative actions. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot promise absolute security; if a breach affecting your personal information occurs, we will notify you and regulators as required by law.

10Your rights and choices

Wherever you live, you can:

• Access / export. Ask what personal data we hold about you and receive a copy. An export contains your account email and profile, devices, settings, per-category block counts (counts are the only activity data that exists — we do not have browsing history), your removal and unblock requests, your accountability-partner list, and billing records.
• Correct inaccurate information.
• Delete your account and data (Section 8 explains exactly what deletion does and does not remove).
• Opt out of marketing at any time (Section 4).
• Withdraw consent for optional features — for example, remove an accountability partner at any time. Withdrawal does not affect processing that already happened, and it does not turn off filtering on a protected device.

How to make a request. Email privacy@lockedweb.com from the email address on your account with the subject "Data request." We verify every request by confirming control of the account email — never by phone or chat, and support agents cannot bypass this. We respond within the timeframe required by applicable law (generally within 30–45 days); if a request is complex we may extend once and will tell you why. If we deny a request, we will explain why, and you may appeal by replying to our response; where your state provides it, you may also contact your state attorney general.

If you are an accountability partner and want no further messages, use the stop link in any of our emails (no account needed) or email privacy@lockedweb.com.

11Additional information for US state residents (including California)

This section applies where state privacy laws (including the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the CPRA) give you additional rights, and together with Sections 1–3 serves as our Notice at Collection for California residents.

Categories of personal information we collect (described in detail in Section 1), the purposes (Section 3), and recipients (Section 6):

Sale and sharing. We do not sell personal information for money. Advertising cookies on our website may constitute "sharing" (cross-context behavioral advertising) or a "sale" as those terms are broadly defined; you can opt out at any time via the cookie and advertising controls in Section 5, by using a browser or extension that sends the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal (which we honor as an opt-out where required), or by emailing privacy@lockedweb.com. We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of consumers under 16. We do not sell or share filtering data, DNS activity, or protection settings.

Sensitive personal information. We collect the sensitive categories above only to provide the Service you asked for, maintain its security and integrity, and as otherwise permitted by law — not to infer characteristics about you and never for cross-context behavioral advertising. We therefore do not offer a separate "Limit the Use of My Sensitive Personal Information" control; you can still contact privacy@lockedweb.com with any request.

Your rights. Subject to verification: the right to know/access, correct, delete, opt out of sale/sharing, limit sensitive-data use as described above, and not to be discriminated against for exercising any right. We do not use your personal information for profiling or automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects (such as decisions about lending, housing, education, employment, insurance, or health care). We honor these requests as described in Section 10. You may use an authorized agent with written permission; we will still verify your identity. California's "Shine the Light" law (Civil Code §1798.83) also permits requesting information about disclosures to third parties for their own direct marketing; we do not disclose personal information to third parties for their own direct marketing.

Retention by category is described in Section 8.

12Children

You must be at least 18 to create a LockedWeb account and purchase a subscription. The Service is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us personal information, contact privacy@lockedweb.com and we will delete it.

An account holder may install LockedWeb on devices in their household — for example, a parent or guardian setting up protection on a family device. In that case the account (and the data in it) belongs to the account holder; the device-level data we process is the technical and filtering data described in Sections 1–2, and the setup flow on that device discloses that filtering is active. The account holder is responsible for having the authority and any consent needed to set up protection on a device they give to someone else.

13Visitors from outside the United States

LockedWeb is operated from the United States, and your information is processed and stored in the US (and in the regions of the service providers listed in Section 6). Data-protection laws in the US may differ from those where you live; by using the Service you understand your information will be processed in the US. We honor the data-subject requests in Section 10 for all customers regardless of location.

14Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The effective date at the top shows the current version. For material changes we will give notice — for example, by email to your account address or a prominent notice on our website — before the change takes effect. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date means the updated policy applies.

15Contact us

Related: Terms of Service